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Boyz N the Hood

Film Review
May 18, 2012
Boyz N the Hood The film, “Boyz N the Hood”, written by John Singleton in 1991, exhibits the upbringing of young African American teenagers who are brought up in less than ideal living conditions in their neighborhood. The film compares the distinctions between the lifestyles of Tre Styles and his friends’, Darren and Ricky Baker. Singleton demonstrates the importance of patriarchy and the focus on the teenagers to exhibit hegemonic masculinity while living in the ghetto of Los Angeles by comparing the difference between the lifestyles of Tre and his friends. While some young males in the hood have can create positive social relationships with others, there are some that form relationships by constructing identities on various and simultaneous levels which can be connected back to alcohol and drug abuse. The social unequal circumstances the African Americans of this community live in provide difficult chances for possibilities of social justice to occur because of both the neighborhood and discrimination they face. Tre, Ricky’s best friend, is able to survive the surrounding violence and discrimination as a result of the powerful hegemonic masculine presence of his father in his life. Therefore Tre is educated in making good choices in situations he faces among his friends. His friends, however, are not so fortunate. For example, Dough doesn’t have good direction or a father figure, but is raised by his single mother who is determined to get her children to be successful; nevertheless, her main focus is Ricky because in her eyes he has the most money making potential. The mother’s lack of leadership over Dough’s can be directly related to the fact that her class only allows her to focus on the money that he children can make. This lack of presence in Dough’s life is in turn what causes his to make negative choices in order for him to survive in the life he has been born into. There are many instances of...

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...Unite is a common word the comes to mind when debating the themes of Boyz in the Hood written by John Singleton and Black Freedom Fighters in Steel by Ruth Needleman. Boyz in the Hood is a film that follows the lives of a group of young African Americans living in South Central Los Angeles, California. Each main character faces some common struggle modern day children and teens face today. Their fate relies on what they decide to do about their common struggle. In Black Freedom Fighters in Steel, you glimpse into the lives of five men connected by one aspect of their lives. They also must do something in order to survive as blue collar workers during the 20th century. Both these works have one common theme if not more, these boys and these men had to unite together in close friendship and within a union.
Boyz in the Hood follows one particular group in South Central Los Angeles. Trey Styles along with his friends Ricky, Doughboy, and others all grew up in the same neighborhood living with various struggles, some in common. Trey moved to live with his dad at the age of 10, Ricky and Doughboy, half-brothers, lived across the street from him in a single parent household. Ricky was raised on the hope and spirit of his mother to be a football star. His brother Doughboy was not given the same hope and dreams from his mother. Trey was raised differently than his friends because he was being...

...Boyzn the HoodBoyzn the Hood is a vivid video representation of what life is like for those who live in the hood. There are two families that were the focus within the movie: The Styles and The Bakers. The director of the movie, John Singleton, wants his viewers to compare the lives of the individuals within the movie to their own lives so there could be a change in our society. He discretely expresses the importance of a good upbringing by a fatherly figure. I believe that this made the difference with the two families. It made all the difference to be brought up in the right circumstances.
The two families were brought up in a lower class part of Los Angeles. The area is a low income neighborhood with the homes in need of much repair. In the movie there is un-cut grass and un-raked leaves cumbering the ground. The paint on the walls is chipped and dull. The movie shows Tre at a young age sent to his father Furious. Tre and the Bakers children, Doughboy and Ricky become good friends throughout their teen years. It is interesting that these kids would get into so much trouble by just trying to find things to keep them occupied. In one scene of the movie, Ricky took a football as they were walking around town. A group of teenagers eyed the ball and desired to take it. With a little contention they stole the ball. After a small conflict, they got the...

...There are many differences between the realities of an upper class and a lower class society. One may see the difference when analyzing how society has an impact on the choices you make in life, the impact with a father figure in the hood, the impact even just one person can make on many people, and the impact of many other thing as well. Making choices while living in the hood, many times can decide whether you are going to live or not. In the society in the hood, most of the time you have to shoot first or risk being shot. Singleton refrains from portraying his characters as inner-city misfits but instead he characterizes them as average American teenagers who are caught in a situation in which they have no control. Doughboy is an average American teenager but his behavior is not that of an average teenager. It is a result of the influence from the society he has experienced. The film compares the differences between the lifestyles of Tre Styles and his friends’, Darren and Ricky Baker. Darren and Ricky are half-brothers who are nothing alike. Singleton demonstrates the importance of male leadership in a home in the ghetto of Los Angeles by comparing the difference between the lifestyles of Tre and his friends. While many adolescents in the hood have close friendships, some form close relationships by assembling gangs and create a world of violence due to alcohol abuse, which together ultimately breeds...

...The movie Boys in the Hood takes place in Los Angeles California, and centers around a group of African American youth that grow up together in the same neighborhood. We get a glimpse into the world they live in, and the environment that many African Americans had to endure and cope with. Through the trials, tribulations, and encounters that these youths have we can see some of the social and economic problems that face many African Americans then and now. These problems and issues include drug abuse, violence, and poverty are all portrayed and acted out by these youth throughout the movie.
We can see the impact of drug abuse and its impact on the African American community in the movie through the main character’s (Cuba Gooding Jr.) interaction with his neighbor. In one scene Cuba Gooding Jr. grabs a child in the street to avoid it being hit by a car, and when he takes it back to the mother we can see that she is high and intoxicated off drugs. The mother’s blatant negligence of her child is further shown through her attempt to buy drugs off Cuba Gooding Jr.’s character.
Violence is a very common theme that is preset throughout much of the movie, and was expressed in varying degrees. One truly tragic scene included the brutal and unfair death of Cuba Gooding Jr.’s best friend, who had just gotten into college right before he was violently gunned down by a rival group of youth. This death was further exasperated by the fact that when he was shot, he was...

...Josh Henderson
Political Science 505
Boyz in the Hood
The film Boyz in the Hood is a 1991 film directed by John Singleton. It is about three young men named Tre, Ricky and his brother Doughboy who grow up in South Central Los Angeles, a dangerous area in Los Angeles, California. While Ricky and Doughboy grow up in a single mother household, Tre lives with his mother at the beginning of the movie. But after Tre gets in trouble for behavioral problems at school, he is sent to live with his father, a strong-willed man with a tough as nails approach, who teaches Tre about responsibility and being a man.
One element the movie examines is the importance of family relationships. While Tre has a relationship with his father and mother, most of his friends were raised in single parent households. Growing up in an environment such as South Central Los Angeles, children need to have a stable structure in their household.
The relationship between Tre and his parents is an interesting play on the basic family unit. While his parents are not living together, either by divorced of break-up, he manages to maintain a close relationship with both of them. Early in the movie, Tre’s act of disobedience in elementary school has led his Reva to send him to live with his father Furious in the violent neighborhood of South Central L.A, where theft and homicide are very common. Most African-American men raised in areas...

...For my paper on the movie BoyzN the Hood as well as the reading Black Freedom Fighters in Steel, I will find a common theme that is used in both and explain how they used that theme in their work. The common theme that I found that was used in both the movie and the book is how the characters dealt with the oppression that was in their lives. The characters from the movie BoyzN the Hood that I will be referring to are Doughboy, Officer Coffey, and Shalika. The characters that I will be using from the book Black Freedom Fighters in Steel are George Kimbley, Curtis Strong, and Jonathan Comer. They all dealt with oppression differently some used it to their advantage, some people used it to hurt others, some made something of themselves, and some did nothing to make themselves better.
In Black Freedom Fighters in Steel, George Kimbley was the first man that I read about who stuck in my head while the whole time while reading this book. His mother had taught him at a young age by watching and observing how she dealt with the white people. She used trust as a form of power. If you could get the white folks to trust you and hold certain secrets between you, then that would go a long way back in the day. As a young child George did not go that far in school because he always thought he was a bright kid and could easily remember information after reading it one time. George would go up...

...This popular film 'BoyzN the Hood', which was nominated for both best director and original screenplay takes place in South Central Los Angeles, California. Before the opening seen of the movie there are two messages that come across the screen about violence in South Central, LA. The one message states that one out of every twenty one black American males will be murdered in their lifetime. The other message says that most will die at the hands of another black male. The plot of the movie is based about a young male named Tre' who was sent to live with his father in South Central to learn discipline and life lessons. Before moving in with his father Tre' was following the path of a criminal lifestyle. Tre' then learns from his father ways to live life the correct and respectful way. The movie shows examples of different types of crime that are common in South Central. There crimes such as murder, robbery, assault, and drug use.
BoyzN the Hood shows the struggles that these black Americans have living in these inner city neighborhoods. They show how even black males that are trying to stay clean and out of trouble are victimized from the actions of other people. In the movie the character Dough Boy's brother Ricky was a football star and on his way to get a scholarship to the University of South California until he was murdered from his brother's criminal actions towards another...

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Boyzn the Hood directed by John Singleton is viewed as one of the most influential films of its time. The film has sparked a new genre of films such as Menace II Society, South Central, and Baby Boy. In each of these films, similar to Boyzn the Hood, is the portrayal of the struggles that African Americans in ghettos face, and how they deal with the thought in the back of their minds that there is no way out.
The setting for Boyzn the Hood takes place in South Central Los Angeles in a neighborhood riddled with poverty and violence. Throughout the movie Singleton brings various elements seen in these real life neighborhoods to the big screen for people to observe. Robberies, shootings, and murder are some of the violent aspects shown in this film.
Fredrickson’s “Racism: A Short History” touches on the idea of racism. Racism is portrayed often in the film. For example the police took a great deal of time to show up at the house of the main character when called for a robbery. When there one cop was seen stating how it was a shame he did not shoot the kid dead because he believes that all the African Americans in the neighborhood are worthless and the city itself is better off without them. Just as Fredrickson touched on, people often view inhabatants of the ghetto as having differences in ways that are permanent and unbridgeable.
The...